I'm gonna be installing Arch for the first time, and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

I'm mainly interested which filesystem and system (aka systemd) thingy should I go with. But fell free to leave any other suggestions.

Ext4, systemd is built into the distro. If you remove systemd, you've made your own distro.

Since it's your first installation I wouldn't suggest you go wild on the first attempt unless you have lots of experience dealing with the problems that might occur or a lot of time.

Not what you asked but I suggest some tilling window manager. They are so cool!

BTW Good luck mate!

@Mandrake I've been breaking my arch based NAS for almost 2 years. I think I can break things harder now :)

Tiling manager is also on my todo list.

@WildOrangutan then go wild and enjoy the trip my friend.

Just remember that elementaryos exists when arch disappoints you. Or maybe I’m wrong and you’ll be happy with it, good for you then

Depends on what you like. Personally I choose full custom.

Window manager i3wm and Polybar for the status bar.
For the browser Firefox and for the terminal emulator Urxvt. Also for the file browser, I chose Ranger, it's simple and it works from the terminal.
For the audio I installed Pavucontrol.

Some of the things I did after the installation were to get the wifi working. Add a wifi service to the systemd so it connects automatically. Fixing screen tearing and installing some utilities like tools for copy-pasting between windows, and a network manager.

But you can skip almost all that by installing MATE lol.

I would recommend btrfs so you can use timeshift, or xfs if you don't plan on doing anything interesting with your filesystem.

Use ext* if you are out of your mind.

Also, on a less inflammatory note, I HIGHLY recommend you keep a laptop nearby so you can look things up as you go, throughout the install, setup, and early stages of use. This was invaluable to me.

@halfflat
Is, definitely. I'd go void before artix.

@bahua
I'd recommend against xfs if your planning on using any form of containerization. If you must, make sure that ftype is enabled when you create the part.

file system, I guess nothing wrong with ext4

Some people prefer btrfs, dunno yet (only used it a bit on my opensuse machine)

As for the "init" system, for normal arch you only have systemd, if you're curious about alternatives consider checking out Artix, which basically is Arch but with runit, openrc or s6.

@SortOfTested Didn't one of void's main developers leave the project recently?

I think I read something about that, and the important question is: will the void project survive that?

Take an external backup of everything valuable on your hard disk. Might save you a lot of trouble in case things go south.

@LotsOfCaffeine
Anyone's guess really

I like openbox as my wm, as simple as it gets